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MUSIC FOR THE MASSES EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

recordings in Two, as has been prevalent at Abbey the 1930s. He later developed recorders to automatically have more recent musicians Road since it first opened in the world’s first stereophonic double-track performances. such as Oasis and Adele. 1931. Housed within a former recording system at the . Tapes were sped up, looped, The dimensions, wooden nine-bedroom Georgian However, the arrival of The sliced and slowed down. flooring and layers of wall townhouse in north-west Beatles turned the studios into a were even placed panelling all contribute to , it was the world’s first household name when the band inside cupboards to produce the distinctive that custom-built recording studio. recorded Abbey Road there distinctive sounds. emphasise the mid-range The studios were the first to and the cover featured Today, many rare pieces frequencies, making the studios use ‘moving coil’ a photo of the band walking of equipment from this era sit perfect for recording pop songs. and recorders, which work by across the pedestrian crossing in the corridors between the Many young and aspiring bands producing a small induced outside. The and 1970s studios. The building has run dream of being able to capture voltage in a coil of wire when saw a flurry of experimentation out of storage space and the some of this sonic aura on their sound waves hit a diaphragm, as engineers hand-built tape equipment is often still used by own tunes by recording here. after they were introduced machines, customised audio artists wanting to get a special Today, however, the spread by engineer Alan Blumlein in compressors and rewired vintage sound on their music. of cheap, high-quality software and equipment For more than 70 years, a diverse range of musicians from Glen Miller and Cliff Richard to Radiohead, Coldplay and Lady Gaga have recorded at Abbey is removing the need for artists Road Studios. The expertise and cutting-edge equipment that was behind some of these albums is now being used by the next generation of pop stars © to book expensive studio time to produce their tracks. Technology is triggering a seismic shift With its herringbone-patterned in the as new wooden floor and lilac-coloured artists can record their music wall panels, it is easy to forget at home, without the need to that at Abbey Road Studios you rely on labels and large studios. are standing in one of the most MUSIC FOR Given this apparent threat to its famous recording studios in the business, Abbey Road is taking a world. Studio One, at the heart somewhat curious approach, by of the studios in London, looks helping these DIY musicians. Its more like school gym hall than engineers have spent the past a place where music history was five years developing software THE MASSES created. and online services that allow The magic of the place is anyone with a home computer revealed when you close your Abbey Road Studios is one of the world’s most famous recording to recreate the distinctive Abbey eyes: the room has a wide, Road sound in their bedroom. studios, linked with some of history’s greatest musicians and classic epic, acoustic feel that befits albums. Technology journalist Richard Gray talked to Mirek Stiles, the orchestras that have played there. There is a slightly smaller WORLD FIRSTS Head of Audio Products at Abbey Road Studios, and Jon Eades, space next door that boasts While this may seem an unusual Head of Abbey Road Red, to learn how the studios’ acoustic a warmer and more intimate step for an organisation whose sound, which has attracted some business has been built around a engineering expertise and classic equipment is being adapted to of the biggest musical artists special blend of the right venue, in the world. Acts including equipment and expertise, it is help today’s DIY musicians. Composer Sir Edward Elgar conducted an orchestra at the opening ceremony of the studios in 1931 on a stage built at and also characteristic of the rule- one end of Studio One, demonstrating the sound and atmosphere of a live concert that the acoustic engineers hoped made many of their landmark breaking experimentation that to capture © Abbey Road Studios

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UNMIXING SOUND Digital technology is not just giving old instruments and equipment a new lease of life, it is also resurrecting entire pieces of music. James Clarke, a technician at Abbey Road, tackled the seemingly impossible: unmixing a piece of music after it had been recorded. Throughout the history of recorded music, it has never The warmth and character that been possible to successfully unravel the different components is achieved by using signals of a track if they were recorded together. To overcome this through analogue circuits is still problem, sound engineers record the vocals and all the different instruments in a piece of music on separate channels, mixing highly prized over the harsh The team at Abbey Road Studios has produced samples of three of the ones and zeros of digital. It is classical that are kept in Studio One and Two at Abbey Road, including them together in the control room. the uprights used by the Beatles and a Yamaha CFX1 Concert Grand – For albums such as The Beatles’ Live at the Hollywood Bowl, perhaps fitting that this ageing an instrument that costs more than £120,000 new © Abbey Road Studios analogue equipment is now the problem is immediately apparent. On the original recording, playing a fundamental role in drawings. Testing how they DIGITAL the sound of the band is almost completely drowned out by helping Abbey Road break new compare to the real thing could INSTRUMENTS the screaming of 10,000 fans. However, Clarke felt that it was a ground in the digital world. be a good deal trickier. problem that modern digital technology could help with. He Fortunately, one piece While the recreations of spent five years programming and tweaking software that could of good luck may make the recording equipment at Abbey unravel all of the separate instruments and vocals from a track. The VIRTUAL EQUIPMENT job of resurrecting a piece of Road can give some flavour process involves modelling the music as spectrograms (a visual Working with Israel-based Engineer Gus Cook works with BTR-3 tape machines, one of which was rediscovered at the University of Southampton of the distinct sound that can in 2016, in room 11 at Abbey Road Studios around 1965 © Abbey Road Studios equipment that has almost representation of the spectrum of frequencies) to help identify the software company Waves Audio, legendary status among be heard on albums recorded component elements. Abbey Road Studios has been the studio and the virtual circuits Hearts Club Band album. There There are virtual models of audiophiles a great deal easier. there, it is hard to beat actually When he applied it to The Beatles’ album, he was able to recreating the sound of original so that they can be compared. are recreations of Abbey Road’s vinyl cutting, and In early 2017, a student radio playing in the studios. There isolate each of the four’s instruments and vocals from the messy Abbey Road equipment as Engineers then spend days fine original reverb plates that were playback gear, passive equalizers station at the University of is an emotional element to cacophony, allowing an entirely new remastered version to be plugins that can be used on tuning the digital version to installed into the studios’ and artificial double-tracking Southampton rang up to say interacting with 50-year-old created. The new cleaned-up album was released in 2016 to audio-editing software. In much ensure that it adds the same chambers in 1957 and became equipment, an effect that was that they had found an old equipment with a weight of coincide with Ron Howard’s documentary about The Beatles’ live the same way as it is possible character and depth to audio popular on the pop albums of invented for The Beatles. Each tape machine that may have musical history behind it that is tour . to use plugins on photo-editing signals as the original analogue the 1960s and 1970s. A selection plugin has a graphical interface belonged to Abbey Road. When hard to replicate with software. programmes to stylise an image, circuits and valves would have of mixing desks developed that replicates the look of the they read out the number The unique sound of the studios in as many ways as they could gives users the opportunity to audio can be similarly tweaked done. At times, staff can find by Abbey Road’s record original machine, helping to printed in tiny type on the themselves, and the way sound possibly imagine: hitting different reblend the balance from each and enhanced. themselves listening to a snippet engineering development give a taste of the experience front, staff at Abbey Road were reverberates between the walls, parts of the snare, tapping rims, in the software Using the original schematics of drum just half a second long department are also available, of using it on their computer. amazed. It was a BTR-3, a vintage is also a key part of what artists using different sticks or brushes, as if they were sat behind and technical drawings stored over and over again to see if including the one used to create It is allowing users to access tape machine custom-built by hope to capture on a record at muffling the drum or holding the control desk. Each of the in Abbey Road’s archive, Waves they can pick up any difference the psychedelic sounds of Pink equipment worth tens of EMI at Abbey Road in the late Abbey Road. To book one of the the cymbal. It took three days sampling sessions was organised Audio is able to build virtual or shift in the digital replica. It is Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of thousands of pounds for less 1940s, which became the main studios can cost thousands, but to sample each by to mimic the conditions from circuits that mimic the behaviour a forensic process. Dawn. than £100. piece of recording equipment for those unable to stretch to setting up 30 different vintage the era that they were trying of real physical devices, such The list of recording Another plugin allows users The technique of building during the 1960s. that sort of budget, Abbey Road microphones from each era to recreate, with drums from as resistors, capacitors, diodes, equipment that has already to filter their audio through the digital replicas component There were just three left in has developed another solution. around Studios Two and Three. the 1980s recorded in the transistors, inductors and valves. been transformed into digital software that recreates the by component also raised the Abbey Road itself, but despite It has teamed up with German For each instrument, more than famous mirror-walled drumming Each component is recreated as plugins is a re-creation of music unique frequency response of a possibility of resurrecting some their best efforts no-one had software company Native 10,000 individual sounds were room of Studio Two. The team a software element that behaves history in itself. It includes rare set of three gold and silver long gone pieces of recording been able to get them to work Instruments to create digital captured before being chopped was also able to source some just as it would in the real world 50-year-old tape machines such embossed microphones that equipment. While the original because of bad corrosion and samples in its studios. Using up in a process called scripting. vintage drum sets dating back and the components are then as the J37, which was specially were custom-made for the Royal physical devices have broken damage in storage. By contrast, original drum kits from the 1950s, These can then be mapped onto to the 1920s from a collector pieced together as they were developed by the studios’ then family during the 1920s and or disappeared, the schematics the newly discovered machine 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the a MIDI controller so that the who allowed them to sample in the original Abbey Road owners EMI during the 1960s 1930s. One of them was used by remain in Abbey Road’s archives, is in excellent condition, raising studios were set up just as they user can play the samples on an the instruments, one of which equipment. and 1970s, and was used during King George VI during Britain’s and engineers have been hopes that it may be possible would have been in each era electric keyboard or drumpad. was insured for more than £1 Test signals are put through the recording of The Beatles’ declaration of war against experimenting with creating to restore it to its former glory. and the sounds were captured. A Using multiple microphones million, with some of the oldest both the original piece of kit at pioneering Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Germany. digital versions from these musician played each instrument to record the drum samples equipment in the studios.

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THE FUTURE ABBEY ROAD RED OF SOUND The Red audio technology incubator takes its name from Abbey Road’s old research and development Despite its history, Abbey Road is wing, the Record Engineering Development Department (REDD), which is where much of the not just fixated on the past. It is equipment used in the studios’ rich history was built. However, resurrecting such an expensive also looking to the future. It has department was not an option in the modern business world. Instead, Abbey Road decided to look established an incubator, called outside its own doors to find those who are pushing boundaries in the music industry and support Abbey Road Red, to support them instead. startups and academics who The scheme, which launched in 2015, offers startups a six-month mentoring partnership that gives are developing innovative new companies access to Abbey Road’s expertise, facilities and contacts in the music industry. Two new products for the music industry. companies are signed biannually in exchange for a 2% stake in equity. For Abbey Road, the benefits One company to be extend far beyond any financial return by bringing new ideas and technical knowhow through its supported by Red, California- doors. The hope is that relationships formed during the incubation periods will lead the studios into based OSSIC, triggered interest new avenues for the business. in what many at Abbey Road This drive to break new ground in the music industry has also seen startups that might be hope could be a new direction perceived as a potential threat to Abbey Road’s central business being signed up to RED. for the studio. The company is Cloudbounce is building music mastering software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to polish developing that records before they are released. It is something for which Abbey Road has built its own reputation, can recreate a three-dimensional with a team of experts who master tracks for customers. AI could potentially provide a cheaper audio experience for listeners. alternative to this service and so a rival to Abbey Road’s business, but by working with Cloudbounce, it Intrigued by the possibilities, found that there were actually many ways that the services complement each other. AI could be used Abbey Road has now begun to give an initial quick mastering, while humans give the final polish to make it unique. working with researchers at The other firm in the latest intake is Vochlea Music, a company that is creating a smart the University of York to find microphone that converts vocals into instrumentation. Using machine learning, the software ways of capturing sound in recognises whatever instrument is being imitated vocally, such by humming or beat-boxing, and three dimensions. The idea of turns it into the corresponding guitar melody or drum beat for example. The company grew from ambisonics was first developed a graduate project by George Philip Wright, a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s in the 1970s by British engineer Enterprise Hub, at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. He is using his Fellowship Michael Gerzon but failed to take of the Hub to refine the technology into a product and build a new prototype of the microphone, off because of the expense of the but he hopes that it may also be adapted into other formats including a high end live performance equipment needed to listen to it. tool for musicians. With the development of Previous participants in RED include firms such as Titan Reality, which is developing three- virtual reality, there is now dimensional sensing technology to turn gestures into music. It uses shapes and movements to enable new impetus to make use fine control of software-driven instruments. Another called UberChord is developing an app to teach of this technology to make people how to play the guitar. the experience even more immersive. Hearing a sound creative outlets for artists. Like BIOGRAPHY behind or above you could many things at Abbey Road, it Mirek Stiles is Head of Audio Products at Abbey Road Studios. act as an audio guide to help could help the studio build on He joined the studios as assistant recording engineer in 1998 navigate a virtual world. its rich past. When the studios and has worked on projects such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy It has also raised new first opened, early engineers and and with musicians including Muse possibilities for the music world dreamed of capturing the full and Kanye West. too; with the ability to throw live experience for listeners, Jon Eades is Innovation Manager at Abbey Road Studios, sound at a listener from any something that could finally heading up Abbey Road Red. He joined the studios in 2011. direction, it could lead to new be realised.

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